Ariadne Encyclopedia > Literature and the Arts > Classical Literature, Mythology, and Folklore > Folklore and Mythology Ariadne Ariadne (ărēădˈnē) [ key ], in Greek mythology, Cretan princess, daughter of Minos and Pasiphaë. She loved Theseus , and gave him the skein of thread that enabled him to make his way out of the labyrinth after killing the Minotaur. When Theseus left Crete, Ariadne went with him, but before they reached Greece, he abandoned her at Naxos. There the god Dionysus consoled and later married her. She bore him several children, including Oenopion, whom Dionysus first taught the art of winemaking. It was said that Zeus granted Ariadne immortality and that Dionysus set her bridal crown, the Corona Borealis, among the stars. Subsequent treatments include nearly 50 operas by Monteverdi, Handel, Massenet, Richard Strauss, Milhaud, Martinü, and others. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

The Myths of Crete: Minos and His family Minos and His Family Minos had many children, four sons and four daughters (including Ariadne and Phaidra) by his wife Pasiphae (a daughter of Helios) and several by other women and nymphs. When his stepfather Asterios died, he wanted to become king of Crete, but the people demanded a sign from the gods. Minos prayed to Poseidon to send a "bull from the depths" of the sea, and promised that he would sacrifice the bull to Poseidon if it should appear. Poseidon granted Minos' request and sent a great bull from the waves to the shore, but Minos kept the bull in his herds and sacrificed another one instead. Herodotus says that Minos was a great military leader, under whose reign Crete became the most famous of all nations. Thucydides adds that Minos was the first "thalassocrat," the first to build a navy and rule the sea.

At nin-year-intervals Minos went to the cave of Zeus and returned with a new set of laws, which he called the commands of Zeus; Homer says that Minos was king for periods of nine years and "conversed with great Zeus." Angered by Minos' failure to sacrifice the bull he had sent, Poseidon punished Minos in two ways: he made the bull mad and wild, so that no one could approach him, and he also made Minos' wife Pasiphae fall in love with the bull. Fortunately for Pasiphae the famous architect Daaidalos was living then in Crete, exiled from Athens for the murder of his young nephew Talos (whom he killed when the boy showed signs of nascent engineering talent by sawing through a piece of wood with a snake's jawbone).

Although he is more famous for building the Labyrinth and making wings for himself and his son Ikaros, Daidalos' most renarkable accomplishment was what he now made for Pasiphae: a wooden framework on wheels, with a cos's skin stretched over it, constructed in such a way that Pasiphae could get inside it, pedal it to the field where the mad bull was raving, and position herself in such a way that when the bull mounted the artificial cow it would also have sex with Pasiphae inside. Pasiphae then became pregnant by the mad bull and gave birth to the Minotaur (or Asterios), who had a human body and a bull's head. Minos, who of course wanted to conceal the product of his wife's adulterous bestiality, consulted oracles and was told to have Daidalos build an enormous maze, the Labyrinth, and to put the Minotaur in its center (from which no one could find the way out). Meanwhile the Minotaur's father, the bull that had been sent by Poseidon, was captured by Herakles for his seventh labor and taken to Eurystheus.

After its release the bull wandered around Greece and eventually came to Marathon near Athens. At this time king Aigeus of Athens was holding athletic games during the Panathenean festival, and Minos's son Androgeos came to compete and won all the events. Aigeus then sent Androgeos to fight the bull at Marathon, but the bull killed him (others said that Androgeos was killed by jealous competitors as he travelled to Thebes for other games in honor of king Laios). When Minos heard of the death of his son, he was on the island Paros sacrificing to the Charites (the three Graces). He returned to Crete, assembled his fleet, and sailed to Athens to gain revenge for his son's death. First he conquered Megara, whose king Nisos had a magic purple hair on his head which made him immortal; Nisos' daughter Skylla fell in love with Minos and pulled the hair out of her father's head, and then Minos killed Nisos and repaid Skylla by drowning her. Minos now invaded Athens, and the war dragged on for some time.

In response to Minos' prayer, his father Zeus afflicted Athens with plague and famine, but the Athenians overcame this by sacrificing the four daughters of Hyakinthos at the tomb of the Kyklops Geraistos. The Athenians then learned from an oracle that their only hope was to pay whatever tribute Minos would demand, and Minos ordered Athens to send to Crete every year (or every nine years) seven young men and seven maidens to be eaten by the Minotaur. Theseus and Ariadne In the meantime Theseus, son of Aigeus (or Poseidon) and Aithra, came to Athens, but his father did not recognize him. Medeia, who was staying with Aigeus at this time, warned Aigeus to beware of the stranger, so Aigeus sent Theseus to fight the bull at Marathon, figuring that Theseus would die (as Androgeos had died earlier). However Theseus killed the bull and then, after his father recognized him, volunteered to be included in the third tribute sent as food for the Minotaur.

When the fourteen Athenian youths arrived in Crete, Minos' daughter Ariadne fell in love with Theseus and asked Daidalos how she might save him. Daidalos told her that Theseus would have to fight the Minotaur, but that he could escape from the labyrinth by taking a ball of thread with him, tieing one end of the thread to the entrance, unwinding the thread as he went through the maze, and then following the thread on his way out. Theseus entered the labyrinth and did as Daidalos had advised. When he reached the center, he met the Minotaur and killed it with his fists, then fled from Crete with the other youths and with Ariadne, as he had promised her. When Theseus reached the island of Naxos, he abandoned Ariadne while she slept, but she was rescued by the god Dionysos, who became her lover. The people of Cyprus said that Ariadne came with Theseus to their island, then died of grief when Theseus' ship was carried off by storms. She subsequently was worshipped as a goddess in the sacred grove of Aphrodite Ariadne.

It is certainly possible that Ariadne was originally a goddess, a Cretan version of Aphrodite, and her cult was important not only on Cyprus but also, apparently, in Macedonia, where portrayals of Ariadne and Dionysos appear frequently in the art of the royal dynasty. Daidalos and Ikaros Minos now punished Daidalos by imprisoning him in the labyrinth, along with his son Ikaros, bu Daidalos made artificial wings so that they could escape by flight. He warned Ikaros not to fly too high (or the sun would melt the wings' wax glue) or too near the sea (or the spray would damage the wings). Ikaros flew too near the sun, whose rays melted the wax, and he fell to his death in the sea south of Samos, the Ikarian sea. His body washed ashore on the island named Ikaria for him, where Herakles found and buried it. Daidalos flew to Kamikos in Sicily, where king Kokalos (and his daughters) were delighted to have him stay with them. Minos set out in search of Daidalos and sailed through the Mediterranean with his navy.

At every port he gave the king a spiral seashell and promised a great reward if he could find someone who could pass a thread through the shell. The challenge is reminiscent of the advice Daidalos gave Theseus, and this is exactly what Minos was thinking: if he found the man who could thread the shell, he would find Daidalos. When Minos came to Sicily, he gave the shell to Kokalos, who returned it the next day completely threaded; Daidalos had tied the thread to an ant, who pulled it behind him all the way through the shell. Minos demanded that Kokalos turn over Daidalos to him. Either the king refused and a war ensued, in which Minos was killed, or he agreed to turn over Daidalos after a banquet. While Minos was happily bathing with the daughters of Kokalos before the feast, they poured boiling water over him and he died. Daidalos built many wonderful works in Sicily and then went to Sardinia, where he made the Daidaleia (perhaps Bronze Age conical towers).

His name was connected by the Greeks with the first lifelike statues (when Herakles saw the statue of himself which Daidalos had built to honor him for burying his son, Herakles thought it was alive and threw stones at it), and also with great Bronze Age structures all over the world, especially in Egypt. Ariadne's thread | Article about Ariadne's thread by The Free Dictionary Ariadne's thread | Article about Ariadne's thread by The Free Dictionary Also found in: Dictionary , Wikipedia . Ariadne (ărēăd`nē), in Greek mythology, Cretan princess, daughter of Minos Minos , in Greek mythology, king of Crete, son of Zeus and Europa. He was the husband of Pasiphaë, who bore him Androgeus, Glaucus, Ariadne, and Phaedra. Because Minos failed to sacrifice a beautiful white bull to Poseidon, the god caused Pasiphaë to conceive a lustful ..... Click the link for more information. and Pasiphaë. She loved Theseus Theseus , in Greek mythology, hero of Athens; son of either King Aegeus or Poseidon.

Before Aegeus left Troezen he placed his sword and sandals beneath a huge rock and told his wife Aethra that when their son, Theseus, could lift the rock he was to bring the gifts to his kingdom ..... Click the link for more information. , and gave him the skein of thread that enabled him to make his way out of the labyrinth after killing the Minotaur. When Theseus left Crete, Ariadne went with him, but before they reached Greece, he abandoned her at Naxos. There the god Dionysus Dionysus , in Greek religion and mythology, god of fertility and wine. Legends concerning him are profuse and contradictory. However, he was one of the most important gods of the Greeks and was associated with various religious cults. He was probably in origin a Thracian deity. ..... Click the link for more information. consoled and later married her. She bore him several children, including Oenopion, whom Dionysus first taught the art of winemaking. It was said that Zeus granted Ariadne immortality and that Dionysus set her bridal crown, the Corona Borealis, among the stars.

Subsequent treatments include nearly 50 operas by Monteverdi, Handel, Massenet, Richard Strauss, Milhaud, Martiṅ, and others. Ariadne Minos of Crete | Devdutt Minos of Crete Published in First City Delhi July 2008 Right in the middle of the Mediterranean sea stands the island of Crete, once the cradle of a great civilization that predated the one in Greece. This was the Minoan civilization, named after its mythical king, Minos, whose stories are scattered across Greek mythology. Minos was the son of Zeus, king of the gods, and Europa, a Phoenician princess, who Zeus abducted by taking the form of a bull and tricking her into climbing his back. He carried her over the sea and brought her to the island of Crete where he ravished her. She bore him three sons: Minos, Sarpendon and Rhadamanthus. Instructed by their father, Minos grew up to be a brilliant law-maker. One of the curious laws Minos established to control population on the island was segregation of women and encouraging sexual relations between men.

This institutionalized pederasty or man-boy love was later adopted by the Greeks. It so happened that Minos and his brothers fell in love with the same young boy called Miletus, who unfortunately preferred only Sarpedon. In a fit of jealous rage, Minos drove his brother out of Crete. Minos had a wife called Pasiphae who, tired of his infidelity, cast a spell on him that caused him to spew serpents and scorpions every time he ejaculated. To prevent the boys and girls he made love to from being killed by his lethal semen, Minos got his great court inventor, Daedalus, to create the world’s first condom made of goat’s bladder. Minos had a son by Pasiphae called Glaucus who disappeared one day without a trace. Minos sent for Polyidus to find his son. Polydius was a wise man and a diviner. Searching for the boy, Polydius saw an owl driving bees away from a wine-cellar in Minos’ palace. Inside the wine-cellar was a cask of honey, with Glaucus dead inside. He had fallen in while chasing a mouse.

Minos demanded Glaucus be brought back to life and locked Polydius up in the wine-cellar until he did so. Some time later, a snake appeared inside the cellar. Polydius killed it. Shortly thereafter, another snake followed the first, and after seeing its mate dead, turned back and returned with an herb which then brought the first snake back to life. With the same herb Polydius resurrected the child much to Minos’ delight. Minos refused to let Polydius leave Crete until he taught Glaucus the art of divination. Polydius did as ordered, but then, at the last second before leaving on his boat, he asked Glaucus to spit in his mouth (as they kissed?). Glaucus did so and forgot everything he had been taught, much to Minos’ irritation. Minos went on to conquer all the cities that lined the shores of the Mediterranean. One city, Megara however, proved invincible – it was foretold that as long as its king, Nisus, had a lock of purple hair under his white hair, he would never be defeated in battle. Now the daughter of Nisus, Scylla, fell in love with Minos.

Minos asked her to prove it by cutting the purple hair on her father’s head. She did and Minos managed to defeat Nisus and conquer Megara. Once this was done he spurned Scylla for disobeying her father. Heartbroken, she changed into a seabird, relentlessly pursued by her father, who became a sea eagle. Later, to prove that his kingship over Crete was divinely ordained, Minos prayed to Poseidon and got the god of the sea to send him a giant white bull from the sea. Minos was supposed to sacrifice this impressive creature to Poseidon, but then, in cupidity, decided to sacrifice a more common bull instead. In rage, Poseidon cursed Minos’ wife with zoophilia: Pasiphae had an intense desire to mate with the bull. Realizing the bull had no interest in her, she got Daedalus to build her a hollow wooden cow, which looked very much like a live creature from the outside. The bull from the sea mated with the wooden cow, while Pasiphae crouched inside; she got pregnant as a result and gave birth to a horrible monster, the Minotaur (half man half bull).

This was the great shame of Minos. Since the creature was partly his son and the son of a god, he could not bring himself to kill it. In disgust and embarrassment, he got Daedalus to built a huge labyrinth under his city and put Minotaur in it. There it would live, hidden and trapped forever. Minos was lord of a vast empire and he ordered his vassals to regularly send him young virgin boys and girls. They were forced into the labyrinth and were never seen again. Some said they became Minotaur’s companions; others said they became his food. None knew for once you went into the labyrinth, one never came out again. Of the many youths who were sacrificed thus was one Theseus, from Athens. When he arrived on the shores of Crete, Minos’ daughter, Ariadne fell instantly in love with him. She gave him a sword and a ball of red fleece thread that she had spun. Theseus tied the thread round his waist and let the thread run behind him, thus tracing his way in so that he could find his way out. With the sword, he managed to kill Minotaur and come out a hero.

He took Ariadne with him when he boarded the ship out of Crete to prevent Minos from following him. But once he managed to escape, he abandoned Ariadne on an island, for he did not love her. Minos was afraid of losing his master inventor, Daedalus, so he had him imprisoned in a tower. But Daedalus managed to escape by inventing a pair of giant wings, using bird feather and bee wax, that enabled him to fly out of the tower, over the sea, to the island Sicily. Daedalus escaped along with his son Icarus for whom he had built a separate pair of wings. Icarus unfortunately flew too close to the sun; the wax melted and he tumbled down into the sea and drowned while Daedalus flew on. Determined to find his inventor, Minos traveled around the Mediterranean shores, from city to city, threatening to destroy cities which failed to answer his riddle. He presented a spiral seashell and asked for it to be strung all the way through. In Sicily, the riddle was solved by getting an ant, with a string tied to its back, to walk through the shell.

Minos knew instantly that’s where Daedalus was hidden for none but the master inventor could come up with such an ingenious solution. Minos demanded that the local king hand the inventor over. The local king, Cocalus, managed to convince Minos to take a bath first. Cocalus’ daughters and Daedalus then killed Minos by pouring boiling water on him. Since Minos had been a great king and law maker on earth, Hades, god of the underworld, decided to make him one of the judges of the dead. It was he who decided what would be a man’s final resting place after death – if one’s life was heroic one was sent to cheerful Elysium; if one’s life was full of delinquency, one landed up in the horrific Tartarus; and if one lived an ordinary life one was sent to boring Asphodel. Such is the myth of Minos of Crete.

Share: Myth and Creativity: Ariadne’s Thread and a Path Through the Labyrinth | The Creativity Post Myth and Creativity: Ariadne’s Thread and a Path Through the Labyrinth Share Synopsis The Greek myth of the labyrinth and the Minotaur at its center has ancient insights for us on how to find our way through the maze of the creative process. Myth is rich in metaphor that can illustrate and inform the creative journey. The story of the labyrinth from Greek myth is an excellent example of this. Sometimes the creative process can feel like we're walking a maze, getting lost along the way. What can this story teach us about both finding the center of the labyrinth and finding our way out again? The story of the minotaur starts with Minos, who became king of Crete when Poseidon sent a great white bull out of the ocean as a sign Minos should rule. Minos had promised to sacrifice the bull to Poseidon, but broke his promise when he saw how beautiful the bull was, and sacrificed a lesser animal instead. Poseidon was angry when Minos broke his promise, so he punished him by making his queen, Pasiphae, fall in love with the bull.

Out of this union the minotaur was born. Minos instructed the great architect and engineer Daedalus to build the labyrinth to house the Minotaur. It was famous for being unnavigable; once in, anyone who entered was doomed to be eaten by the Minotaur. Minos had recently conquered Athens, and he demanded as tribute that every year Athens would send seven maidens and seven youths to be sacrificed to the minotaur. Theseus was a son of King Aegeus of Athens. Theseus' story is a long and complex one, and he is one of the great heroes of Greek myth, so we'll only be looking at the portion of his story that involves the labyrinth. Theseus volunteered to join the band of youths who were to be sacrificed. He traveled to Crete, and as soon as he arrived Ariadne, King Minos' daughter, fell in love with him. She offered to help him conquer the labyrinth and kill the minotaur if he would marry her and take her away from Crete. He agreed. Ariadne gave him a ball of red thread, and Theseus unrolled it as he penetrated the labyrinth, which allowed him to find his way back out.

He found the minotaur deep in the recesses of the labyrinth, killed it with his sword, and followed the thread back to the entrance. Theseus took Ariadne away from Crete, but then forsake his promise to marry her by abandoning her as she sleeps on the beach of the island of Naxos. She thinks she is about to die, that this is the end of her story, but she is discovered there by the god Dionysus, who falls in love with her and makes her his wife, and was the only husband among the Greek gods to remain faithful to his wife. This is a complex and rich myth, with many story threads we can pull, to find the creative metaphor in the myth. Let's focus on just a few. The story does not start or end with the Minotaur, but he is at the heart of it, as he is at the heart of the labyrinth. The first interpretation of this story is that a monster must be slayed as part of the initiatory journey of following the path through the maze, but I think there is more to his presence here than that. Monsters are often the guardians of treasure, who must be slain in order to bring the treasure out.

In a creative journey, we must often find our way through a labyrinth. We take wrong turns, hit walls, get lost. Often, this is what must happen to find the creative treasure at the center of ourselves, that one thing that must be brought into the world through our creative efforts. That is the true magic of the creative life. The process of living creatively brings new things into the world and to humankind, but there is a monster guarding the gift, because when the maze "takes one to the center of one's self, to some hidden, inner shrine, occupied by the most mysterious portion of the human personality". This journey through the labyrinth must be hard. "The harder the journey, the more and the tougher obstacles in his path, the more the initiate will be transformed and acquire a new self in the course of the voyage of initiation." (Penguin Dictionary of Symbols, Chevailer and Gheerbrant, "maze" entry) In our inner labyrinths, the Minotaur fulfills a necessary guardian role; a part of ourselves that needs to be conquered in order to create. What in us has to be slain before we can bring our creative work to life?

The second part of this story that we should examine here is the role of Ariadne in the story. Princess of Crete, she uses Theseus' actions to leave her home of Crete behind and move past her upbringing to find her place in life. In my opinion, the true hero of this story is Ariadne, not Theseus, and it is her we must look to for the wisdom in the myth. She is the one who chooses Theseus when he arrives in Crete, using him as a tool to escape the island. She is clever enough to come up with a way for Theseus to find his way out of the labyrinth. We see this pattern in other places in Greek myth, where it is only through the assistance of a woman that the hero can win the prize and escape to freedom (Jason and Medea comes to mind). She "misses the boat", which changes her destiny, and becomes the wife of a god. She is really the one who defeats the labyrinth; Theseus is merely her method for doing so. We can look at her story as if she is the scorned one, abandoned by a man she had trusted, helped, loved. I think she is too clever to be dismissed so easily.

In fact, her ball of red thread is an excellent metaphor for that cleverness, as well as for the intuition which guides her in creating such a simple solution to the problem of the labyrinth. We can use our own thread to find our way through to the heart of the maze. This myth has so much more in it than I can reasonably unpack in one piece, therefore I would invite all the Creativity Post readers who might be interested to join me on a trip to Greece this fall. In October I'll be leading a group on an exploration of Greece and her myths, which will include a week on Crete and a much more in-depth exploration of the myth of the labyrinth. More information is available at my website, , under the "Greece 2014" tab. Join us if you can! Cretan or Classical Mazes Stones on ground, Scandinavia (over 500) Basket, Papago Indians, Arizona, USA The Hopi Indian reservation (N. Arizona) have it as part of their spiritual system, meaning Life, death, and rebirth. The Tohono O'otam and Pima tribes of Southern Arizona weave the design into their baskets. It is a tribal logo.

On the Nazca Plains in Peru, just one of the many drawings in the desert. Trojan Game - horse practice, Rome, Italy City of Jerico, 12C Manuscript, Munich, Germany Soekershof - maze in South Africa There are also English turf mazes with a Cretan maze pattern. Grass Maze in Cambridge Botanical Gardens (UK) Temporary maze outside Saffron Walden Museum Saffron Walden has a famous turf maze and a good garden maze. In 2011, the town held a maze festival, with various temporary mazes scattered throughout the town. The museum had this Cretan maze. Temporary maze at Mill Road Fair Mill Road is a shopping street in Cambridge. Once a year, at the beginning of December, the street is closed to traffic for a street fair. This maze was made in Petersfield, a small common at one end. It is a standard maze, made using a rope . The walls are marked out with birdseed! I helped to make it. We used plastic bottles with the bottoms cut off to hold the seed and dribble it at the knots of the rope. After dark, the maze was lit with candles.

(The tree is not actually part of the maze!) Centaur's Labyrinth in Mayer Arizona A correspondent told me the following: Having worked with small human scale labyrinths for years as part of closing for field expeditions and courses a group of Grad students and I decided to scale up the paths to work with horses. Thos evolved into the Centaur's Labyrinth that we built at a YMCA camp, Chauncey Ranch in Mayer Arizona. It is a modification on a classic seven circuit with a 40 foot round pen in the center and 4 foot paths. We use it in a wise variety of ways: for contemplative practices with horses; playing and partnering with horses; sometimes kids just run through it. It was originally just dirt and rocks (lots of rocks, gathered from local river beds) It is an act of love keeping the weeds down each year. I think that it's a lovely idea, making a maze big enough for horses to walk . Chakravyuha or Padmavyuha labyrinth The Padmavyuha or Chakravyuha refers to a military formation in the Hindu epic Mahabharata.

The oldest parts of this text date are about 400 BC, though the origins of the story probably fall between the 8th and 9th centuries BC. The thirteenth day of Mahabharat war described in the epic is remembered for the construction of Chakravyuha by Dronacharya. This formation was supposed to be nearly invincible as only Krishna and Arjuna could defeat the formation, both entering it and leaving it, and they were not present at this battle. But Arjuna's son, Abhimanyu, knew how to enter the formation, but not leave it. He died in the centre of the formation after killing many of the warriors. His father Arjuna said afterwards "Pale is the colour I behold of the faces of you all. I do not, again, see Abhimanyu. Nor doth he come to congratulate me. I heard that Drona had today formed the circular array. None amongst you, save the boy Abhimanyu, could break that array.

I, however, did not teach him how to come out of that array, after having pierced it." (From The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 2, translated by Kisari Mohan Ganguli, available on Gutenberg .) This military formation is visualised as a maze. See carving, left, from Hoysaleswara temple, Halebid, India. It is very like a Cretan maze in the outer section, but the inside is a simple spiral. Other Cretan-style mazes Strawberry Fair maze This maze is simpler than the conventional Cretan maze. I saw it at Strawberry Fair 2000 in Cambridge (UK), made with sawdust on grass. The maze looks a little like a tree. You don't walk through to the centre and then have to retrace your footsteps. There's a long way to the centre and a very short way out again (or vice versa). The blue lines are the walls and the red lines where you walk. Another Strawberry Fair maze The maker of ths maze told me that it is based on the Hopi maze rather than the Classical or Cretan maze. This maze is simpler than the conventional Hopi maze.

I saw it at Strawberry Fair 2014 in Cambridge (UK), made with pieces of satinspar on grass - very attractive. The maker of the maze said that she got lost making it! The blue lines are the walls and the red lines where you walk. Crich maze This maze is similar to the Strawberry Fair maze, but simpler. Again, it has a long path in and a short path out (or vice versa). The blue lines are the walls and the red lines where you walk. It is in the Crich Tramway Village , home of the National Tramway Museum, in Derbyshire. Apparently the Crich labyrinth is based on a traditional German design with interlocking spirals, known as the Wunderkreis or 'Wonder Ring'. The walls are made with blocks of local limestone and there are two stained glass panels at the start representing the local rocks, and the vegetation of the Derwent valley. A tall spiral marks the end. There is a beautiful view over the Amber Valley. Glastobury Tor This is Glastobury Tor from the air, courtesy of Google maps . It is a hill sticking up from a flat plain, so visible from all around.

Some people consider that the ridges round the Tor are a Cretan maze, but that is just wishful thinking, I'm afraid. I think that one theory is that they are terraces used for farming, as the land round used to flood regularly. Never mind, it is an extraordinary place. Maze myths There are stories about mazes in many different cultures. Sometimes these are attached to particular maze designs, but sometimes the designs get attached to the stories, like the Cretan design above. Since this is the oldest design and so wide-spread, I have put the myths on this page, although they are not all necessarily connected to it. Theseus and the Minotaur in the Labyrinth The Minotaur was a monster, half man, half bull, who ate men. He was born to the wife of King Minos of Crete. Minos told Daedalus, the inventor, to build a house that was so complicated that the Minotaur would never escape from it, so Daedalus built the Labyrinth. King Minos had a vast empire, and as a tribute he had people sent to to feed to the Minotaur.

They were driven into the Labyrinth, and wandered around, lost, until the Minotaur found them. Part of King Minos' empire was Athens, in Greece. The son of the king of Athens was Theseus, a hero. He was so angry that Athenian people were being killed in this way that he volunteered to go. In Crete, Ariadne, the daughter of King Minos, fell in love with Theseus, and told him how to find his way through the Labyrinth. She gave him a thread, with one end tied to the door of the Labyrinth. Theseus could unwind the thread as he tried to find the Minotaur. When he wish to return, he could follow the thread back again, rewinding it as he went. Ariadne also gave Theseus a sword. He went in, found the Minortaur and killed him. Then he returned, and fled from Crete with Ariadne and the rest of the Athenians. People connected this story with the Cretan maze. However the original Labyrinth, if it ever existed, was not a unicursal maze.

Theseus needed a thread to help him retrieve his path after he had killed the Minotaur, so the Labyrinth must have been a branching maze. This myth was not only the original Labyrinth (the name of the Minotaur's prison), it also explains the derivation of the word clue. A clue helps you solve a mystery, and it is derived from the word for thread. Theseus needed the thread to solve the maze. There is some historical foundation for this myth, surprisingly enough. There was a Cretan empire in the Mediterranean which included mainland Greece. It is called Minoan, after King Minos. There is a magnificent palace at Knossos. The archaeologists couldn't find a Minotaur, but they did find the palace itself very confusing, with many rooms, some at different levels, so it was easy to get lost. Perhaps ancient Greeks visiting Knossos told those at home about their experience, and this gradually changed into the story of the Labyrinth. And the Minotaur? Well, the Minoans loved bulls, and there is a fresco on the wall of the palace, showing an extraordinary display of acrobats jumping over a bull.

This must have been incredibly dangerous, and no doubt people did get killed by the bull. Other descriptions of ancient mazes There are many other stories about ancient labyrinyths, but unfortunately no designs have survived, or if they have, they are either the Cretan design (and the stories always emphasise getting lost, so that's wrong) or more modern designs such as Chartres . Herodotus (born about 484BC) describes visiting a Labyrinth in Egypt, above Lake Moeris, and nearly opposite Crocodilopolis. He seems to be describing a very complicated building with inter-connected rooms, rather than a maze as we think of it today. His Account of Egypt is here . Here is his description of the labyrinth. Being set free after the reign of the priest of Hephaistos, the Egyptians, since they could not live any time without a king, set up over them twelve kings, having divided all Egypt into twelve parts.

These made intermarriages with one another and reigned, making agreement that they would not put down one another by force, nor seek to get an advantage over one another, but would live in perfect friendship: and the reason why they made these agreements, guarding them very strongly from violation, was this, namely that an oracle had been given to them at first when they began to exercise their rule, that he of them who should pour a libation with a bronze cup in the temple of Hephaistos, should be king of all Egypt (for they used to assemble together in all the temples). Moreover they resolved to join all together and leave a memorial of themselves; and having so resolved they caused to be made a labyrinth, situated a little above the lake of Moiris and nearly opposite to that which is called the City of Crocodiles. This I saw myself, and I found it greater than words can say. For if one should put together and reckon up all the buildings and all the great works produced by Hellenes, they would prove to be inferior in labour and expense to this labyrinth, though it is true that both the temple at Ephesos and that at Samos are works worthy of note.

The pyramids also were greater than words can say, and each one of them is equal to many works of the Hellenes, great as they may be; but the labyrinth surpasses even the pyramids. It has twelve courts covered in, with gates facing one another, six upon the North side and six upon the South, joining on one to another, and the same wall surrounds them all outside; and there are in it two kinds of chambers, the one kind below the ground and the other above upon these, three thousand in number, of each kind fifteen hundred. The upper set of chambers we ourselves saw, going through them, and we tell of them having looked upon them with our own eyes; but the chambers under ground we heard about only; for the Egyptians who had charge of them were not willing on any account to show them, saying that here were the sepulchres of the kings who had first built this labyrinth and of the sacred crocodiles. Accordingly we speak of the chambers below by what we received from hearsay, while those above we saw ourselves and found them to be works of more than human greatness.

For the passages through the chambers, and the goings this way and that way through the courts, which were admirably adorned, afforded endless matter for marvel, as we went through from a court to the chambers beyond it, and from the chambers to colonnades, and from the colonnades to other rooms, and then from the chambers again to other courts. Over the whole of these is a roof made of stone like the walls; and the walls are covered with figures carved upon them, each court being surrounded with pillars of white stone fitted together most perfectly; and at the end of the labyrinth, by the corner of it, there is a pyramid of forty fathoms, upon which large figures are carved, and to this there is a way made under ground. Pliny (died A.D. 79) mentions a labyrinth by Smilis of Aegina on the island of Lemnos, and says that it was renowned for the beauty of its 150 columns and that remains of it existed in his time.

He also mentions one at Samos, said to have been built by Theodorus, and says that "all of these buildings are covered with arched roofs of polished stone." Pliny also quotes from Varro (116-27 B.C.) a detailed description of a very extraordinary tomb at Clusium (the modern Chiusi), said to be that of the great Etruscan general Lars Porsena. This is the only Etruscan tomb described by the ancient writers, and is mentioned by Pliny solely because it was alleged to contain a subterranean labyrinth. Pliny seems rather doubtful about the accuracy of this account! Mazes as cities There are several references to cities as names of mazes. The English turf mazes were often called Troy town, and Troy is connected with Scandinavian mazes as well. Mazes can also be called after Jericho or Jerusalem. It's tempting to think that anyone not used to a large city will find its streets to be completely bewildering and maze-like. It's interesting that two of the names are associated with cities that are famous principally for being destroyed, so perhaps the maze is connected with the different levels of defences of a fortified city.

Joshua circled Jericho seven times each time blowing a trumpet before it was destroyed, and the Cretan maze has seven circuits of its paths. Virgil (70-19BC) describes the Troy game in the fifth book of the Aeneid. Iulus, the son of Aeneas taking part with his companions in a sport called the Ludus Trojae or Lusus Trojae (Game of Troy). According to the Roman tradition it was introduced into Italy by Aeneas. The game consisted of a sort of processional parade or dance, in which some of the participants appear to have been mounted on horseback. Virgil draws a comparison between the complicated movements of the game and the convolutions of the Cretan Labyrinth. The church mazes were supposed to be used as substitute pilgrimages. Medieval people thought it was good for their souls if they travelled to holy places. The Holy Land was obviously the best, but that was very far, and often dangerous. So there were pilgrimages to other places as well, such as Rome, Santiago in Spain or Canterbury in England.

There was a scale of value, so a number of visits to an easy place was worth the same as one to a harder place. It has been suggested that walking a local church maze a number of times also qualified. So travelling to the middle was a miniature version of travelling to Jerusalem. A medieval maze story In 1350, Higden, monk of Chester wrote "Rosamund was the fayre daughter of Walter, Lord Clifford, concubine of Henry II, and poisoned by Queen Eleanor, AD 1177. Henry made for her a house of wonderful working, so that no man or woman might come to her. This house was named Labyrinthus, and was wrought like upon a knot in a garden called a maze. But the queen came to her by a clue of a thredde, and so dealt with her that she lived not long after." There is no reference to this particular maze earlier. Protection The Chinese believed that demons could only travel in straight lines, so perhaps mazes are designed to baffle evil spirits. There is a story that the Scandinavian fishermen spent time ashore building pebble paths on the beach. Then they travelled through the maze so bad luck wouldn't follow them.

Anyone sailing on the sea needs all the good luck they can get. Arizona mazes This design is known as the House of I'itoi or Siuku Ki, used in the baskets of the Tohono O'otam and Pima tribes of Southern Arizona. I'itoi brought people to this earth from the underworld. He lives in the maze so people can't find him. But the maze also represents the ordinary person travelling through life. So the little man is either I'itoi, or us. The Hopi have a circular Cretan unicursal maze design called the Sun Father. However, they also have another similar maze design called the Mother and Child (Tï¿½pu'at) which is square. This is not a unicursal maze, and does not have a centre. It is not really a branching maze, but it does offer a choice right at the start. Do you take the left entrance or the right one? The left entrance leads you round the edge of the maze, ending in a dead-end, shown by a dot. This represents the mother. The right entrance leads you round the centre, again leading to a dead-end. This is the child.

Fertility myths It is perhaps inevitable that any groups of myths involve fertility myths sooner or later! In fact, there seems to be surprisingly little on this for mazes. There is a story about the Saffron Walden turf maze , on the town common. It is said that a young woman stood in the centre of the maze, and the young men raced to reach her. Now this is nonsense! The maze paths are very narrow and it would be impossible to pass anyone. There are two ways that you could make it work. The first is that a man chased a woman through the maze. If she was given a few seconds start, then it would make an exciting race. The other possibility is that the woman was in the centre, and the men started off at every few seconds. Then each man concentrated in catching the man in front. When he did, he touched him (or possibly shoved him!) and made him give up. I still think that there can only have been a pair of men, or perhaps three, since the further back you were, the less likely you were to get to the front. Of course, complicated leagues could have been set up, so it would end up rather like the famous Bumps rowing races at near-by Cambridge.

No proof, alas! There are more games and history connected with the Saffon Walden maze here . I think that the round form of the Cretan maze has a certain similarity with the female symbol of a circle on top of a cross. Some of the oldest designs use the square form. Would this suggest a symbol of birth, or possibly re-birth? Certainly there is often a connection between the Labyrinth and death. Those went in to meet the Minotaur expected to die, but Theseus returned. Certainly many people have felt that a maze is a good symbol for life itself. A branching maze presents you with choices every so often. You can take a wrong turn, or there may be two paths which join up again, all of which mirror life itself. A unicursal maze also can represent life. We are born, we all die, and in between we travel the path of life which twists and turns, often in a bewildering way. We cannot see ahead, and the past is gone. When we reach the centre of our maze of life, we die.

Pleasant pattern Finally, I think that I must point out that possibly one reason for these mazes, possibly the main reason, was that the design is an attractive and intriguing pattern. Some people get over-excited about the 'meaning' of mazes, when a very important meaning is that they are fun! About the Labyrinth | The Labyrinth About the Labyrinth Deborah Everhart and Martin Irvine , Co-Directors Sponsored by Georgetown University The Labyrinth provides free, organized access to resources in medieval studies. The Labyrinth’s easy-to-use links provide connections to databases, services, texts, and images around the world. Each user will be able to find an Ariadne’s thread through the maze of information on the Web. Ariadne’s Thread and the Labyrinth in Classical Mythology Ariadne was the daughter of King Minos of Crete. Minos had Daedalus build a Labyrinth, a house of winding passages, to house the bull-man, the Minotaur, the beast that his wife Pasiphae bore after having intercourse with a bull.

(Minos had refused to sacrifice a bull to Poseidon, as the king promised, so the god took revenge by causing his wife to desire the bull–but that’s another story.) Minos required tribute from Athens in the form of young men and women to be sacrificed to the Minotaur. Theseus, an Athenian, volunteered to accompany one of these groups of victims to deliver his country from the tribute to Minos. Ariadne fell in love with Theseus and gave him a thread which he let unwind through the Labyrinth so that he was able to kill the Minotaur and find his way back out again. Ovid says that Daedalus built a house in which he confused the usual passages and deceived the eye with a conflicting maze of various wandering paths (in errorem variarum ambage viarum) (Metamorphoses 8.161): “so Daedalus made the innumerable paths of deception [innumeras errore vias], and he was barely able to return to the entrance: so deceptive was the house [tanta est fallacia tecti]” (8.166-68).

Question: Which daughter of Minos of Crete gave Theseus the thread which enabled him to find his way out of the labyrinth?
Answer: Ariadne